Angie X

This movie confronts head-on a difficult problems within a tangled and male-dominated sub-genre. Meeting all of the criteria that the genre demands and more this movie confronts challenges, such as underrepresented minorities in cinematography. One major issue that I found with the movie, which is very loosely based around true-ish events was the movie covers in entirety the lifestyles of young party-goers and the consequence of their choices. Simply dismissing this film as an attempt to appeal to a younger audience is wrong in my opinion because as far as I can tell, no other film to date gives such a comprehensive view of the 1980's club culture aside from anti-drug PSAs, clearly what this movie is not, and historical films. This film plays like a biographical narrative while being a fun and light-drug movie that brings a strong theme of the destructive effects of criminality, warning the viewer away from the dangers associated. While the movie doesn't condescend to the viewer the story takes on too many subjects, drawing the viewer away from the entertaining aspect of watching these young people at their worst. I believe this movie is underrated. The actors play their parts with gusto, guiding you in the chaos that the subject entails. The movie moves quickly from topic to topic, but in a easy to follow format that many clubbing movies simply lack. The reviews for this movie are of course critical, and the poor rating shows that the movie was received under the same criticisms that movies in the genre, following scarface and other classic clubbing movies, are subjected. Many movies that are ascribed to the niche 'party movie' genre were underfunded and suffered from poor casting. A movie like this one would have received praises had it been release 20 years sooner, when the genre was thirsty for innovators.

My wife and I started watching this at home on DVD from our public library. After 11 minutes she said "I'm not really enjoying this" so we switched to a lightweight rom-com.

The next day I finished watching it myself. Many of the "reviews" here are unfair, the movie actually has a lot of positive things to offer. The problem is, the movie is about mostly despicable people exhibiting despicable behavior in 1984. Lots of drugs, sex, and booze. Instead of focusing on college studies. But apparently it is a fairly faithful telling of the writer/director's own experiences.

The movie has no value if there is no redemption and it appears there is. Angie is a Chinese American who grew up in a bad neighborhood, apparently experienced some sex abuse growing up, had been raped by local young men, and her father didn't have the ability to tell her he loved her. As a result of all those factors she was a hardened young lady who found it difficult to form relationships. When her college money ran dry she hit upon the idea to sneak into the chemistry lab and synthesize MDMA, the drug ecstasy.

Is the movie worth viewing? Not for those who like a rather clean, sanitary story. While this will not be a favorite of mine, and I would never want to rewatch it, I am glad I was able to see it once. It shows a slice of life that I am otherwise unfamiliar with.

Biographies are usually whitewashed to make the subject look like a decent person or a scumbag, rarely do they show both.

The acting, writing, direction for a first time director were better than one could expect, especially when you realize this is her life story so it is a truly from the heart movie, where she opens herself up to honest ridicule and judgement during the bad times.

However, we see her redeem herself and become a productive person who, due to her past, shows hope and shares her lessons of pain and strength to overcome even the worst of times.

Some people don't like honesty.

This movie is very very bad. And not bad like the "so bad it's good", it's beyond that point. It is laughably simplistic and absurdly boring. A mash up of what someone obviously thinks being a drug dealer is like from watching the discovery channel. This is not due to the main character being an Asian woman. That's actually why I watched it. I would love to watch a good movie breaking stereotypes with an Asian female lead. But this is NOT that movie. From the start, stuff just.... happens. Dramatic subplots pop up now and then, and they seem inserted just to fill in plot holes and backstory. It takes a certain lack of talent to put so many things in a blender and end up with something so painfully boring. There's no rhythm, and the community-access-TV-grade direction helps nothing. It also doesn't help that what passes for acting here seems more like reading. I can't believe someone would fund this project after reading the screen play. It is a work completely devoid of wit, style, intelligence or even basic entertainment. I found it my civic duty to create an IMDB account just to warn any potential viewers.

One of the more narrow minded reviewers challenged others to make it through 10 minutes of this movie. well i watched the whole thing and was pleasantly surprised, maybe if they had the patience they would have realized this this movie was actually quite good. they told the story of Angie very well and made the viewer feel for her. the acting was mostly good and the story had its ups and downs to keep you glued.

6.5